This Should Be An Interesting Exercise

[Theron]

And why on earth would someone who is "happiest when she is blasting things" poo poo a dungeoncrawl?

1) She's horribly claustrophobic in real life. I think this affects her perceptions of the game.

2) She's not particularly fond of feeling railroaded, and dungeons can enhance that feeling if done poorly. And frankly, dungeon crawls are kind of a weak point in my GMing arsenal. :\

 

[Mark]

You could run them as two fourth level characters through the freebie pdf download from Paizo -

http://paizo.com/store/paizoExclusives/v5748btpy7xpy

They will need

Spoiler

to find some mushrooms and the only thing sort of like dungeon crawling is a building in which they will find them mushrooms. Most of the adventure takes place in a small village and in the forest before getting to the building.

 

[Teflon Billy]

You could run them as two fourth level characters through the freebie pdf download from Paizo -

http://paizo.com/store/paizoExclusives/v5748btpy7xpy

They will need

Spoiler

to find some mushrooms and the only thing sort of like dungeon crawling is a building in which they will find them mushrooms. Most of the adventure takes place in a small village and in the forest before getting to the building.

Have you seen the one about the Orc and the Pie?

 

[Mark]

Have you seen the one about the Orc and the Pie?

IMC it's poisonberry pie.

 

[Ry]

Why not use the rules from Trollbabe? They're so simple and I've heard great experiences from people playing with their significant others. That faerie idea could work very well with it.

 

[Theron]

I've decided to go with something fairly conventional. I'm not too worried about the actual rules bits as much as getting a few key bits in for him to hang onto (Armor Class, Hit Points, Saves - all are terms he's heard bandied about, so he should latch onto them pretty easily).

The plot is a fairly linear rescue the princess and fight monsters affair. It's linear, but I managed to keep it all above ground and threw in a couple of non-combat encounters (I want to teach him that RPGs are about more than hacking up monsters) and the final encounter has lots of leeway in how they can approach it.

On the downside, a tooth I broke last week is giving me fits, and I had to take some Darvocet for the pain, so I'm not sure how lucid my DMing will be.

 

[Zaruthustran]

Good luck man. If it's not too late, I've got a few suggestions:

1. I game with a guy who has severe ADHD, and he just can't handle things like AOOs and determining when sneak attack should apply (he has no patience for flanking rules, "flat footed", and so on). If your son is like this pal, I suggest going with the Ranger instead of the rogue. They're just as sneaky, and you don't have to fuss with Sneak Attack. Bonus: the Ranger gets Track, which *really* helps move the plot along, and a pet dog, which you should just go ahead and name "deus ex machina".

2. If your wife just likes blasting things, I encourage you to check out the Warlock. Unlimited eldritch blasts, for big damage, with no fuss over spell selection or spells/day limitations. Plus thematic/cool powers, decent armor and hit die for survivability, a wide range of options available via Use Magic Device. It just seems like a much better fit for what she's looking for.

3. If the Warlock isn't your thing, then at least look at reserve feats. Fiery Burst, for example. This feat lets you evoke a 5' radius fiery burst whenever you want, so long as you have a 3rd level spell slot available for a spell with the Fire descriptor. Damage is equal to the level of the spell. So if she's a sorcerer with Fireball as a known spell, and hasn't cast any of her 3rd level spells, she can do tiny 3d6 bursts of flame all day long. Just like the one they call.... Tim?

4. Last suggestion: make 'em 3rd level. They get to pick a feat, and they have enough hit points to take a hit or two. More fun that way.

-z

 

[Varianor Abroad]

Your family dichotomy is facinating. Dungeon crawls can be too railroady (and yet they are more of a flowchart format IMO that leaves a lot choices to PCs), but this adventure is very linear. I remark on this only because I can see how it comes about, but it's different from my experience.

That said, my experience with my own children has been that simplifying the rules is good (don't bother with grapple rules for example), they will want to kill things, and they have a great sense of wonder. So cater to it. If there's a way to make something happen that your son dreams up, think about "yes" instead of "no" if it's not game breaking. (A good example is, giving a Hero Point in case he wants to do something heroic like throw a sword across a room.)

 

[Theron]

And so it came to pass...

Let it be known that Mike the Rogue and Ursula the Sorceress did go forth from the elven city of Treetops to rescue Princess Glorinda from the clutches of the evil wizard Karch and his hobgoblin minions. Along the way, many hobgoblins and bugbears were slain, a dire badger was disturbed and dispatched, pixies were negotiated with, an ambush was reversed, a stockade infiltrated, distractions were provided, a princess was freed and surprised our good Mike with her martial prowess, the wizard was severely inconvenienced and the forces of good triumphed.

In other words, it went well on all counts. Yes, the story was linear, but this was a good thing in a way, since it allowed The Missus to keep the lad on track a few times without my having to do it. He surprised the heck out of me a number of times with both a ready willingness to be heroic AND some fairly glib roleplaying. In our past attempts, he resisted any sort of in-character stuff. Tonight, he seemed to identify with his character as something other than a game piece. When his character got tagged with a lightning bolt and knocked down to three HP, his reaction was, "GAAAAH!!! Little help, please!"

On the practical side, I didn't use anything approaching the full rules set. It was sort of a mashup of C&C and 3.5, in that the NPCs and monsters were generally cribbed from C&C's abbreviated format, which worked fine under the circumstances. I used a battle mat, but didn't worry about attacks of opportunity or fancy maneuvers. Not that they were really needed for this.

He had a blast. Of course, he probably would have had a blast with "Orc and Pie," but it was a great way to spend a relatively quiet evening at home (gaming with an enthusiastic seven year old is anything but quiet, truth be told). And as an added bonus, The Missus didn't have a horrid time. I found out that, in addition to never playing a character above first level, she's never played a spellcaster. Seldom have I ever seen Burning Hands and Scorching Ray used with such gleeful abandon. If she's not careful, I may get the idea she enjoyed herself.

So, all in all, I'm chalking this one up as a success. I think it's just about time for me to haul my red box out of storage for him. Reading-wise, it's still going to give him some trouble, but I think he'll grow into it.

 

[Theron]

Your family dichotomy is facinating. Dungeon crawls can be too railroady (and yet they are more of a flowchart format IMO that leaves a lot choices to PCs), but this adventure is very linear. I remark on this only because I can see how it comes about, but it's different from my experience.

In her case, I believe it's all about perception. I agree entirely that a dungeon is more of a flowchart, but I think the appearance of a closed environment causes her to view it as a linear pathway, whereas a linear pathway that has all the window dressing of wide-open spaces feels less railroad-y to her.

The important thing is, she blew up stuff and had fun doing it.